


you don't make any more up

by transjackianto



Series: Trans Jack and/or Ianto [2]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Episode: s02e07 Dead Man Walking, FTM Jack Harkness, Gen, M/M, POV Owen Harper, Trans Jack Harkness, Trans Male Author, Trans Male Character, Trans Male Pregnancy (mentioned), mlm author
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:14:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23263795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transjackianto/pseuds/transjackianto
Summary: Coda to S2E7 Dead Man Walking:Jack and Owen have a heart to heart while locked in a police cell together.When Jack tells Owen that all the stories he tells are true, Owen remembers a throwaway line Jack said the night they met Gwen.
Relationships: Jack Harkness & Owen Harper, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones (mentioned)
Series: Trans Jack and/or Ianto [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1698622
Comments: 11
Kudos: 83





	you don't make any more up

**Author's Note:**

> This has been swimming through my head since the day I made the "contraceptives in the rain" gif my pinned tweet on Twitter and have thought of many scenes that could be constructed with Jack being trans. This was the first scene that popped into my head. One, because Jack outright says to Owen that he doesn't make his stories up. Two, Owen is a Doctor, and a damn good one at that, that he would subconsciously register throwaway comments that could help him care for the people in his care. Three, this is the first time I'm exploring headcanons for Jack being trans and if anyone would love to come and chat to me about it, I'm over on Twitter as HarknessJones.

Owen touched the bricks of the cell wall almost reverently. Soon enough, he wasn't going to be able to feel the texture of the paint-covered bricks. It wasn't something he had ever contemplated and it was very strange to be thinking of it now. It wasn't quite smooth, it was a little rough, not that you'd know looking at it. He wouldn't be able to comprehend these thing soon. He told Jack as much.

"Only in suffering do we recognise beauty," Jack surmised, almost like he was quoting someone.

He turned towards Jack pointing at him. "Yeah." That sounded familiar, why did that sound familiar? "Yeah, yeah! Who said that?"

Jack looked up at him nodding slightly, "Proust."

Owen gave him a look of disbelief. Jack didn't seem like the type to read stuff like that. "You've read Proust?"

"Yeah." He nodded, taking a deep breath.

Owen sat down on his cell bed, staring at Jack. It wasn't often that Jack would share details about himself.

"Well, no." Jack corrected himself, staring off into the corner of the room. "We dated for a while. He was really immature." He almost sounded disappointed before he looked back up at Owen.

Owen's gaze fell down to the floor as he brought a hand up to brush his nose. God, soon he wouldn't be able to feel that. "You know, none of us know whether to take you seriously," he looked up at Jack laughing slightly, "when you say those things."

Jack huffed a laugh, looking down at the floor. He looked up at Owen, a rueful smile on his face. "When you've lived as long as I have," he shook his head looking back at the floor, "you don't make anymore up."

Owen looked back up at Jack, really taking him in. They knew Jack was immortal. They knew he had lived a long time. They knew that he wasn't from this time. The way he would talk about the 21st Century gave Jack away. He was always so close-lipped about his life but then he would say things, almost like he was daring the team to ask.

Owen had a sneaking suspicion, that if any of them knew what time Jack was from, it was Ianto. Ever since Jack had come back from his trip with his Doctor, they had been different around each other.

If Jack really didn't make any of the fantastical stories he had shared over the years... what did that say about the team? Why would he bother staying here in boring Cardiff chasing the scum of the universe when he could be out exploring other planets? Owen thought back to that day when they confronted Jack on his return when Ianto had asked if he would leave again and Jack had told them that he had come back for Ianto, for them, the team.

Could Owen risk asking Jack a question about his past that had been in the back of Owen's head for a long time. He was a Doctor, he was trained to listen to the way people talked around their problems. One thing Jack said on the night they first encountered Gwen had always stuck with him.

"Jack," Owen began, his hands lightly gripping his thighs underneath his jeans. "The night we met Gwen, you said something."

Jack was staring at him with a contemplative look on his face like he didn't know where Owen was going with this.

Owen took a deep breath. "I'm asking as a Doctor, and your friend. Tell me to be quiet if you don't want to talk about it, but..." He was never quite this hesitant when he was talking with Jack but this could be a delicate personal matter. "At the time, I brushed it off as a joke, but you said you had been pregnant before. How is that possible?"

Because he was staring at Jack's face so intently, worrying about causing offence, he noticed Jack's eyes widen a little and his jaw tighten.

Jack let out a long breath, clasping his hands together. "What do you know about men getting pregnant, Owen?"

Owen swallowed heavily, definitely delicate territory. "I know that trans men can get pregnant."

Jack huffed out a single laugh, looking down at the floor. "I didn't know that it was that popularised yet."

The shorter man licked his lower lip out of habit, if he were breathing he knew that his mouth would be dry right now. "It isn't. But I came across a pregnant trans man once while working in Cardiff Royal Infirmary. I'm a good Doctor, Jack, I try to do what's best for my patients so I research." He knew he sounded a little defensive but he didn't want to be judged on his medical knowledge.

Jack straightened up and looked Owen straight in the eye. "I have been pregnant before because I am trans, as you put it." Jack made visible quote marks in the air when he said 'trans'. "It's a term I've become familiar with in this time, but yes, that would be the correct term."

Owen sat back against the stone wall, eyes dragging over Jack's body. Jack was trans? Well, he certainly passed well, didn't he? Jack has never been shy about his body, Owen had caught glimpses of him naked one time or another when they had used the Hub's communal showers, but he would have never guessed. Then, he thought back to what they knew of Jack, they had always suspected Jack was from the future. Tosh had said it was the way that modern technology seemed to baffle him sometimes but then he would pick up something 'futuristic' looking or alien and be able to pick it apart so easily. She had guessed that modern technology baffled Jack because it was too 'primitive' in his mind just like how old computers from decades ago baffled Owen.

Science, and especially medical science was changing all the time. Who knows how much trans healthcare would have changed by Jack's time. Maybe they would be able to grow a fully-functioning penis for trans men that worked in every way a cis man's penis would and used their DNA so it wouldn't reject. Owen really wanted to pick his brain but even he knew that you didn't just ask a trans person what was in their pants. 

Owen nodded, giving him a slight smile, which Jack hesitantly returned. "Could you get pregnant now?"

Jack shrugged his shoulders. "Not with the contraceptives in the water cycle, but possibly. I still have the equipment necessary." His voice was becoming a bit more tense.

Owen nodded. "Okay, no problem." He sent Jack another smile.

A beat passed.

He couldn't help his curiosity. "Does Ianto know?"

Jack rolled his eyes. Wow, he had been spending too much time around Ianto. "Of course, he does, Owen. He had the exact same question for the exact same reason you did." He smiled up at Owen, his eyes lighting up. "He's the first person in this time to just accept it."

Owen's face lifted in an answering smile. "Good."

The smile fell off his face again. "Why did you bring me back? Guilt?"

Jack sighed, the smile falling off his face, too. He walked towards Owen and sat down beside him. Their shoulders brushed against each other as Jack turned his head to look at him. "No, that's not why. If you've got forever, you send your friends into danger, knowing the stakes aren't the same for you, that you might get them killed while you walk away unscathed." Jack's voice almost broke on the last word, turning to look at the wall in front of him again.

Owen felt like a child asking their parent a question that could hurt them when they got the answer. "Then, why did you?" He looked at Jack, noticing his almost broken look. "Really?"

Jack put his arm around Owen's shoulder as Owen stared down at the floor. "Because I wasn't ready to give up on you," Jack admitted in a soft tone. "I guess I was hoping for a miracle." Jack's voice broke towards the end of the tone, his hand moving up to brush through Owen's hair. It was strange, Owen knew that his life was supposed to be over, but here was a man who had always seemed like an older brother figure, who wouldn't give up on him. He had cursed him to a half life, but this man deeply cared for him. "And I still am." Owen closed his eyes, the tone was almost too much.

Owen felt his head be pushed to the side, and he couldn't help but smile. He was bent over to the side but he looked over at Jack who was smiling down at him. Everything was going to be fine. He hoped.

Jack laughed, "Let's go home."

Owen watched as Jack got up and strode towards the cell door. He banged on it and adopted his Captain tone before addressing the officers outside. "Torchwood. Authorization, Harkness, Jack. 474317."

He looked away from Jack as he sat up straight, the smile falling from his face. He hoped he would be okay. He didn't know what he was going to do now. He couldn't eat, sleep or shag. God, what was he going to do?

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this and that it made sense? I didn't get a beta for it as I wasn't sure who to take it to who would be trans and in the Torchwood fandom and be interested in this. But if you would like to come and talk to me more about Jack being trans, I'm over on Twitter.
> 
> Twitter: @transjackianto


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